114 ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 



people do the same thing, even to the arranging of their 

 cloths, in exactly the same way every day, I determined 

 to find out the reason for these changes, and called her. 

 Having by that time learnt something of native practices, 

 her continued absence had set me thinking : I had also 

 noticed that the girl's father turned his face away, and 

 looked oddly moved, when I asked for her. She came up 

 to me, being obliged to do so, but with reluctance. I just 

 said, ' Put your cloth back, Chowry ' ; this that I might see 

 her hands, for one thing, though she still tried to keep them 

 covered. When the wrappings were removed I found the 

 delicate finger-tips swollen to bursting, needles and splinters 

 having been forced under the nails ! Her ears, too, were a 

 shocking sight, swollen, shapeless, festered ; indeed, they 

 were nearly torn off her head, so frightfully had she been 

 mutilated. All this to make her confess to the theft ! 

 That patient child never cried once before me, though her 

 sufferings must have been sickening, and she was only ten 

 years old ! 



By degrees the story was dragged out : the butler had 

 had this done to her. She, being in and out of the rooms 

 freely, was the very peg on which to hang his trick. Then 

 F. came up — not by chance — and to him Chowry repeated 

 her tale. He himself called the butler, and the other ser- 

 vants were summoned, except those having no indoor work ; 

 they were all men, the ayah, Logan-harri, being absent on 

 a day's leave. 



When they were all assembled F. ordered them to do what 

 is regarded by these people as an act of gross disrespect, 

 namely, to take off and unwind their turbans before a 

 master or mistress. The look of set purpose on his face 

 told me that this was no guesswork. His order was obeyed 

 instantly and simply by each man, whatever his thoughts 

 may have been ; by all but one, that is. The butler alone 

 demurred ; he ' could not be seen without his turban,' and 



